Good day everyone,
Tiffany here.
I hope that you are managing well.
Wanted to stop by,
Say hi,
And guide us through a new moon in Aries meditation.
So happy astrological new year to you.
So yeah,
In astrology this is the actual new year,
Even though we celebrated the beginning of 2020 back in January.
And I just feel like with recent events,
It definitely does feel like a global pause,
A global reset button is being pushed.
And so in true fashion,
The flow of astrology seems to be matching up with the flow of what's happening in the real world,
Which is always encouraging to me as someone who is a fan and a supporter of astrology.
This new moon is very much so about action,
About engaging in action and about new beginnings,
Especially for us in the Northern Hemisphere with springtime,
We can see how nature is kind of going through its own beginning process as well right now.
This new moon in Aries is also about childlike joy,
Because Aries is the first sign of the zodiac.
Traditionally,
The signs of the zodiac kind of,
You know,
They progress from,
You know,
Childlike to being an older,
Wiser person.
And so Aries being the first not only exudes,
You know,
Action and bravery,
But also joy.
And I say that knowing very full and well the context that we are in,
You know,
When the truth is that we are in a pandemic.
And we're being kind of forced to evaluate priorities.
We're being forced to get still and get quiet,
Many of us,
Especially those of us who aren't essential workers.
We're being forced to witness our conditioning without numbing in the ways that we have numbed in terms of doing and going and being.
We're being forced to be with ourselves,
With those that we love in very raw ways.
And we're being forced to make hard choices in the midst of it every day with new news,
We're being forced to,
You know,
Decide on how to take the next best step in a hard time.
Right.
And so when we say this is a time to go and do and be joyful,
But this is also a time to be still,
And to be quiet and to witness and be with ourselves and make hard choices.
Those two experiences may feel very discordant.
At least I thought so when I first thought,
Well,
This new moon just feels very different from what,
You know,
With what we're going through as a collective,
But in reality,
I'm sure we all have experiences that tell us that actually in life,
The two kinds of experiences,
The hard,
The rough,
The learning lessons,
The stillness actually pair well with movement and joy and fresh beginnings.
Recently this year,
I have been practicing yoga nidra on a more consistent basis.
And I've been talking about that a little bit more publicly and in February and March,
It's thus far,
At least once a week during one of my practices,
I have a practice where,
You know,
I up until the last couple of weeks,
I would be out at work in the office,
You know,
Having meetings,
Writing,
Reading,
Meeting with graduate students,
Meeting with colleagues,
And you know,
Doing a lot of thinking and processing and working with people.
I would come home in the afternoons and the evenings and do my practice,
My deep relaxation and my yoga nidra.
And so sometimes I would come home and I would be exhausted.
I'd be drained.
I'd be frustrated.
I'd be confused.
I would be in the midst of making a somewhat difficult choice about the next best step with whatever project I was working on or who I was working with.
And I would go into,
You know,
My yoga nidra practice and at least once a week,
What would happen is that I would end up in my practice getting to a point where I would laugh.
It would get to a point where I could literally feel myself wanting to laugh.
And I felt so joyful.
Sometimes I would actually laugh out loud and the laughing out loud would bring me all the way out of my yoga nidra state.
The first time it happened,
I thought,
You know,
That's just,
You know,
A fluke like happened one time,
But when it continuously happened every week,
And it still has,
It happened to me a couple of days ago in the midst of what we're going through now.
And I was like,
Oh my gosh,
At the center of my soul,
At the center of our souls,
We are joy and it is one of the most beautiful sensations in the world.
And we have access to it even in dark,
Challenging times.
Maybe this season is inviting me,
Is inviting us to be still enough to discern our true desires to discern,
You know,
What kind of layers we've added on through conditioning and to be able to discern what it is in our lives that channels our joy,
That helps us to channel our joy,
That actually supports our joy.
And then in this season,
We're given the space and the time to take mindful steps,
Heartful steps in that direction.
Mindfulness meditation teaches us to work with seemingly discordant ideas,
Stillness and movement,
Challenges,
Frustration and joy,
Frustration and compassion,
Future,
Past and present.
It teaches us to do this by anchoring in the present moment.
And in order to do this,
We have to be awake to the truth of what is.
And we have mindfulness meditation asks us to be kind to ourselves as we navigate that truth.
Mindfulness meditation in and of itself is asking us to engage in discordant experiences if you are a human being,
An adult that has loved ones work to be in the present moment means that there's going to be something that is frustrating or not exactly the way that we want it.
And we're being asked at the same time to be kind towards ourselves and to others.
And so when we practice mindfulness meditation,
What we're actually doing is building our muscles,
If you will,
To engage in processes that seem discordant and to actually see them as dialectics as not either or but both and.
So for our meditation today,
I want us to invite ourselves into the present moment to be awake to what is truly happening.
And to invite ourselves into remembering our joy,
To remembering that we can always access it and to perhaps journal afterwards about the ways in which we can remember what brings us joy,
Remember who supports our joy,
What actions support our joy,
What kinds of stillness support our joy,
Because this is the season for us to engage in all of that and perhaps to engage in more mindful movement that's anchored in our stillness first,
Brave movement that's anchored in stillness first so that we can make decisions that are only not kind and good for ourselves,
But kind and good for the collective.
So we'll go ahead and get started with our meditation.
If you are seated with your legs crossed,
You can go ahead and uncross and recross your legs so that the non-dominant leg is on top.
If you're at home,
Like most of us are in this time,
Like I am at this time,
You can sit in a chair or on a couch.
Your feet can be planted firmly on the earth.
Or if you're like me and you love to sit with your legs crossed,
Go ahead and do that too.
Know that at any point during this meditation,
If your legs start to hurt or if your legs start to feel numb or tingly,
You can move them.
If it's comfortable for you today,
Please go ahead and close your eyes.
Otherwise,
You can always take a soft gaze towards the ground.
And together as a group,
Let's take a deep breath in through our nose.
And exhale,
Release the breath with a sigh.
Inhale take a deep breath in through the nose.
Exhale release the breath with a sigh.
Now return to the natural pace,
The natural pattern of your breath.
Noticing the inhales and the pause.
The exhale and the pause after that.
Release the dialectic that exists in the breath between movement and stillness.
Let that be an affirmation that the very life force that carries us has to be still and it has to move and so do we.
Allow yourself to feel whatever is holding you up,
The earth,
Blankets,
Bolsters,
The chair.
Notice how it supports you in your practice.
It supports you in accessing your joy,
Your present moment and your truth.
Lengthen through your spine just a touch and allow the crown of your head to reach towards the sky.
Relax the muscles in your face,
Whatever you're holding on maybe in your jaw,
That space right between your eyebrows.
Give yourself permission to let go here.
Bring your shoulders up towards your ears and then roll them down your back feeling a slight expansion across the chest.
Notice here how you're still breathing and how breath moves and softens every space that it moves through.
As you breathe here let breath move past your belly and as it does so let it soften that space that we often feel like has to be tight and constricted in order to take action.
Instead let that space be soft.
Let it be receptive to that which we stand in front of in this very moment.
Let your intuitive self pick up on what is actually happening.
How do you actually feel in this moment?
Just like that we sit as a group separate yet together.
Continuing to breathe here the front of the body is soft and the back of the body is engaged.
It's awake.
Release it bring it to your mind's eye time when you belly laughed when you laughed so hard that you could barely contain yourself.
What memory comes to mind in which this happened?
Feel the laughter and the joy in your body.
What did you see?
Were there any smells associated with that memory?
How did your heart feel?
How did your whole body feel?
Now keep that sensation in the body.
Let go of the memory.
That sensation that you have kept is rooted in channeling your joy.
That is not something that came from an external source.
It actually came from you.
It will always come from you.
For the next few minutes as we sit together and breathe together and we stay awake to the truth of what is right now.
Can you also feel in your body the access to your joy?
Who is this?
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Gently draw your awareness back to your breath.
Feel the breath as it rolls in and out.
Mm.
You might wiggle your fingertips and your toes,
Inviting movement in.
But first,
Bring movement into the edges of your body.
Mm.
Take a deep breath to close our practice.
Deep breath in.
Exhale,
Release the breath with a sigh.
Let your practice go.
Exhale.
Bring your palms together at the center of your heart.
Notice that beating heart.
Evidence of you being here in the present moment.
Awake to the truth of your life.
And awake to the fact,
The truth that you can always access your joy.
Bow your head ever so slightly,
Ever so gently to that truth.
Give thanks to yourself for showing up for your practice during a time when we could be choosing to not and it would be understandably so.
Thank you all so much for sharing this practice with me.
It's been an absolute honor.
And I wish you nothing but wellness and peace.
And a happy astrological new year.
Namaste,
Ashe.
Amen.
Namaste,
Ashe.
Amen.
Before I let y'all go,
I just wanted to leave you a couple of questions if you want to do some journaling after your meditation.
First question is what activities remind you of your joy?
What activities did you enjoy as a child,
A teenager or a young adult?
The next question is what are small ways that you can invoke joy into your day on today?
In this week,
In this month?
There are some ways,
This is the third question,
Some small ways that you can use your joy to guide you in your stillness and in your movement.
And lastly,
How can you use your stillness and your action,
Your movement,
Not only in a way to serve yourself during this time,
But to also serve and support others well-being in this time.
I think this question is the ultimate question for us.
Understanding that stillness is a choice that we can make right now that is actually an action.
We can choose to act by being still.
And by doing so,
We can support others,
Support and care for others that we know and that we don't know.
Thank you all so much and have a great day,
Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.
Bye.
